The Parthenon Sculptures are sometimes called the Elgin Marbles because they were brought to Britain by Lord Elgin. The sculptures come from the famous Parthenon temple, which is part of the Acropolis in Athens. The Ancient Greeks began building the temple in 447BC.

Around half of the sculptures were destroyed in ancient times, before Lord Elgin arrived at the Parthenon. Of the remaining sculptures, about 50% are now in the British Museum, where they have been on display since 1817. Most of the rest are in the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.Read the rest of this entry »

Turkey is following an increasingly aggressive policy of getting top museums around the world to return its heritage. Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay says that in the last decade, more than 4,000 artifacts had been brought back to Turkey from world museums and collections.

Turkey’s minister of culture recently opened a new archeological museum in the western city of Izmir. Ertugrul Gunay is the architect of a museum revolution in the country aiming to harness Turkey’s rich heritage.Read the rest of this entry »

The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is celebrating the centenary of the discovery of the bust of Nevertiti. Perhaps this would be a fitting point, for them to also enter into serious discussions with Egypt, who also claims ownership of the artefact.

Berlin’s Egyptian Museum has said that it will celebrate the centenary of the discovery of the 3,400-year-old fabled bust of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti amid an ongoing feud with Cairo over its ownership.

The museum said it would open an exhibition on Dec. 6 honoring the famous sculpture and other jewels of the Amarna period in its collection on the German capital’s Museum Island.Read the rest of this entry »

Rare birchbark canoe repatriated from U.K. to Peterborough museum
By Mike Fuhrmann, The Canadian Press August 17, 2012

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. – The latest arrival at the Canadian Canoe Museum, a six-metre-long birchbark craft, is in poor shape. Ribs poke out from the sides and much of the frame has disintegrated.

But the vessel’s remarkable history — and the fact that it has survived at all, becoming one of oldest birchbark canoes in the world — make it a “stunning find,” says museum curator Jeremy Ward.Read the rest of this entry »

September 5, 2012

The Elgin Marbles are by far the most famous sculptures missing from a Greek temple – but there are many other similar, less known cases. Each case is of course different, but there are still parallels that can be drawn.

In the case of this article, is is the sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia, located on the island of Aegina in the Argo-Saronic Gulf, close to Piraeus, which are now held by a museum in Germany.

On 13 April 2011 a group of local dignitaries, school children and villagers gathered in front of the Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina, carrying placards and making speeches calling for the return of sculptures removed from the sacred temple exactly 200 years ago. Whilst the more famous Elgin Marbles are the paragon of looted works of art and have been the subject of much debate as demands intensify for their return from the British Museum, the significance of the Aegina sculptures should not be forgotten as they continue to decorate the galleries of the Glyptothek Museum in Munich, Germany, a neo-Classical building, displaying sculptures from Greece’s archaic period

Aegina is the closest island to Athens and is one of the jewels of the Argo-Saronic Gulf. On the eastern part of the island on a pine-covered hill, commanding views over the gulf, lies a beautiful Doric temple built in around 490BC out of limestone and marble. The sanctuary is dedicated to the goddess Aphaia (the “Dark One” or “Invisible One” and possibly a Minoan goddess linked to the veneration of Athena). The sculptures that once adorned the temple have been described as amongst the most famous and important artistic remains from the Archaic and early Classical periods, depicting the heroism of the Greek warriors during the Trojan War. Heroic combat is not only the stuff of Greek mythology and history but, to borrow from Shelley, it also resides in the marbled immortality that is Ancient Greece.Read the rest of this entry »

September 4, 2012

We often talk about provenance, in relation to looted artefacts, being later sold on – and the fact that without provenance, it is hard to really know what the artefact is – where it really came from & whether it is genuine or not. What is sometimes overlooked is that such issues of provenance can sometimes have just as much effect on far more recent art works.

The message is clear – all artwork needs a full provenance, to be certain of its authenticity. The people who buy works which do not have one are encouraging the market in looting & fakes, while at the same time possibly purchasing worth a tiny fraction of what they paid for it.

On a mid-February day, she approached the mansion at 19 East 70th Street, where New York’s most venerable art gallery used to be, before its sudden, shocking closing last fall amid forgery allegations. “It’s amazing to think that this institution never stopped for 165 years,” she said. “It didn’t stop during the Civil War, World War I, World War II … I kept it open on 9/11.”

Now the doors were locked, the building cleaned out. The new owner was about to take possession. Knoedler’s former director had wangled a walk-through: a chance, as she put it, to be the last one in and the last one out of this gallery that had once sold Raphaels and Vermeers to Mellons and Fricks. She seemed not to wonder whether she was part of the reason these rooms were now empty.Read the rest of this entry »

The last day of summer brings an unique sky phenomenon of the August full moon, the so-called Blue Moon. The moon rises above the horizon to the delight of rational sky watchers and touch romantic souls.

However nobody should expect to see the full moon dipped in blue color. Tonight’s full moon will be silver or yellow depending on the weather conditions. Then “Blue Moon” is just an expression. Blue Moon refers to describe rare happenings: farmers used to call “Blue Moon” the forth full moon in a season (spring, summer, winter and fall) that has normally three full moons.Read the rest of this entry »